Ozark school bus department getting an AED

OZARK – The Ozark Transportation Department started the school year with word that a grant will pay for a piece of eagerly anticipated equipment.

A scare with a former bus driver highlighted the need for an automated external defibrillator, or AED.

“One minute he was here telling a joke, or doing whatever he was doing,” said transportation supervisor Brett Adams. “The next minute he’s gasping for breath on the ground. It had a personal impact on me, to see someone I started here with go down like that.”

The driver recovered but no longer works for the district. His experience served as a safety reminder.

“With the 70-plus people who we have here, we knew the need could arise at any time,” Adams said. “Instead of wondering if it can happen, we need to be wondering when it will happen.”

The grant for $819.08, according to the district’s website, was one of several the district received this year from the Finley River Foundation, the Ozark affiliate of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks.

Adams said it’s not uncommon for any school district to have multiple defibrillators, but the transportation department at Ozark didn’t have one. He said it was an especially good idea for the department because many people drive buses after retiring from other jobs.

“We do have a lot of younger people here as well, but we do have a workforce who, like me, are 40 years old or older.”

Safety is a big part of bus driver training and testing, Adams said, and every driver has CPR training. Sheri Dobbs, the lead driver who wrote the grant for the AED, also is an emergency medical technician.

Sheri Dobbs(Photo: Submitted photo)

“One thing we train our drivers to do, is if you feel like you could have a medical emergency or you are just not feeling right, pull over,” Adams said. “We take anything like that very seriously. When you’re a bus driver, there are lives at stake.”

The AED, expected within a week or so, is the newest model.

“It’s not like what you see on TV, where they say ‘clear,’” Adams said. “It’s actually something that tells you how to work it. Basically, someone who hasn’t had any training at all can use it.”

The AED has a digital screen and shows the operator step-by-step instructions.

Though the transportation department has seen good response time from 911 in Ozark, Adams said the defibrillator is an additional safety measure.

This was the first grant the transportation department at Ozark has received, said Dobbs.

“It probably took me about two months of writing, rewriting, having people read it and then redoing it,” she said.

Donna Moulder, transportation director at Ozark schools, played a role in getting the grant for the department, Adams said.

The school district also received three other grants from the Finley River Foundation, including awards for a collection expansion at the North Elementary Library, a Silver Dollar City trip for third-grade East Elementary students and a subscription to Scholastic News for classrooms at the South Elementary School. The grants totaled $3,472.